1.1.1 Chapter Two

Amazingly, the moment Trance Gemini set foot aboard the Eureka Maru, it's luck changed. The cargo run they'd done just as Trance arrived had been a brilliant success, and soon Beka found herself some very high paying customers. The Maru was moving up in the world, and Beka believed she had Trance to thank.

"I swear, that girl is just a sparkly purple good luck charm," Beka said to Harper on one occasion, when Trance was off fixing things in the Maru's tiny excuse for a med bay. Harper sometimes wished the med bay was slightly bigger, due to the fact that he tended to get sick a lot. But since Trance arrived it had also become a lot cleaner, so he wasn't complaining.

Rev kept his opinion mostly to himself, but he seemed happy Trance was on board. He spent a lot of his free time teaching Trance about the Way, much to Harpers amusement. Sometimes he wasn't exactly sure how much Trance actually understood, but she seemed interested enough. Even if she was just humouring Rev, it made him happy, and that's all he cared about.

Harper… well, Harper just wanted to understand her. She was gorgeous, but the most secretive person he'd ever met. If he asked her where she was from, she would sidestep the question, or distract him somehow until he'd gotten so frustrated he'd give up.

Like the time she tried to fix the life support system…

~~~~~

"You're doing that wrong."

Trance sighed and turned to face the blond engineer.

"No I'm not," she told him, gesturing at the wires. "See? Red to red, blue to blue, green to green."

Harper laughed. "It's not that simple, Trance."

She frowned. "It's not?"

With that, Harper proceeded to launch into an elaborate and highly entertaining explanation of exactly how the Maru's circuitry worked. "Okay, first you have to put the red wire to the blue wire – the red wire on the left – then you take this nanowelder and melt it all together. Blue left wire goes with left red wire… and hey, you got the green bit right. That's great. Anyway, the only way you're going to get anything even [I]approaching[/I] freaking power on this thing is by fixing up this yellow circuit here."

He turned to see if she was following. She stared at him, eyes as wide as soup plates. "Um, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing here."

It was Harpers turn to sigh as he sat down next to her. "Lucky for you, I'm a freaking genius.

Let's see what you've done to this thing."

Trance bristled. "[I]I[/I] didn't do [I]anything[/I]."

Harper laughed again and took a look at the circuitry. It was funny, but ever since Trance arrived there was always something to laugh about. Not ironic, beaten down laughter – real laughter. He'd almost forgotten it existed.

"Sure ya didn't, Trance babe."

They kept working in silence, and Harper quietly observed Trance's work out of the corner of his eye. She was actually pretty good at this – and that made him wonder why she ended up on the streets in the first place. Sure, she said she'd done stuff before, but if she'd had jobs like that, how had she ended up in such a rotten position?

"Hey, you're pretty good at this," he told her as they worked. "Do they teach ya stuff like this on the planet of the sparkly purple people?"

Trance grinned. "Just some skills I picked up along the way."

"What planet are you from, anyway?" Harper asked, curious. He'd never seen anything like Trance before, and he'd seen plenty.

She looked visibly uncomfortable. "Just a planet."

"Oh, come on, Trance… what's it called?"

"You wouldn't be able to pronounce it," she told him absently, going back to her work. But Harper wasn't giving up so easily.

"You could tell me, and then I'd have at least heard it," he retorted.

"It's not really that interesting…" Trance said uncomfortably.

Harper had learnt from a young age that when you wanted to know something from someone who wasn't liable to kill you, you should just bug them until they told you.

This technique did not seem to work with Trance.

"So is everyone on your planet purple and sparkly?" Harper asked.

"Could you pass that… technowidget?" Trance said, gesturing to a tool on the floor.

Harper obliged and kept talking. "And I suppose your planet is where purple people eaters originated… they live high on the hills, right?"

"Where does this wire go?" Trance asked him.

He looked over to see the entire thing in complete chaos. "Aw, crap."

"Sorry," Trance said in a light tone, giggling slightly.

A crackle came over the room, then Bekas voice came over the intercom.

"Trance, can I see you for a minute?"

"Sure," she called back. Harper sighed and set to work on the life support system.

"See you later Trance," he told her as she bounced out. She sure had her way of avoiding questions.

~~~~~

As much as the purple pixie was secretive, she was also eager to please. She'd always try and help at anything. Problem was, even though Trance obviously had a heart of gold, she sometimes didn't exactly get things right… and Harper was constantly in complete awe of the way everything worked out in the end.

~~~~~

"Coffee is the sustenance of life," Harper had said once to Trance when she asked him exactly what was so great about the drink he claimed he could not survive without. "The nectar of the gods… something that makes life worth living."

"Caffeine is a very potent drug," Beka told Trance with a roll of the eyes.

"Another thing that's good and full of that wonder substance is sparky cola," Harper said with a grin. "Of course, we ran out. So I'm having to resort to coffee."

"What does coffee taste like?" Trance inquired eagerly.

"Try some!" Harper urged, pouring her a cup. Trance took it, then looked at the brown liquid warily.

"Are you sure this is safe to drink?" she asked.

"Hey, I'm still standing," he told her. "Just try it."

Wrinkling her nose, she closed her eyes and took a sip. Harper watched, interested.

"YUCK!" She swallowed and made a face. "That's disgusting!"

"To each his own," Harper said, mildly annoyed at Trance's anti-coffee ways. She sighed and headed off.

***

Oddly enough, in the middle of a cargo run to Neisies VI, the coffee machine broke. To most people this wouldn't be a major problem, but to Harper it was a major catastrophe.

"There is no friggin way I am going to survive without coffee for the next three days!" he told Beka when Beka informed him that before he fixed the coffee machine, he had to realign slipstream, fix weapons and make sure the AG field – which was being a tad temperamental – wasn't about to blow out.

"Harper, you'll be fine – a few days without that in your system will do you good," Beka told him.

And Harper complained.

***

Next day, Harper was in a foul mood. Caffiene withdrawal wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He yelled at Beka, got into a one-sided argument with Rev and snapped at Trance, who wasn't overly impressed.

He was still in a foul mood a few hours later, scowling as he realigned the slipstream lens. Trance was in the room with him, happily meddling around with… something, he really hadn't bothered to look.

"I would kill… or at least maim for a cup of coffee," Harper murmured absently as he worked. Trance giggled from her perch, but said nothing.

Keeping up the work, he occasionally glanced over at his purple friend. She was giggling to herself, huddling over whatever it was she was doing. Kind of cute, in a way… and he didn't do cute. But Trance's cuteness was… somehow cuter than other kinds of… cuteness. [I]You are not making any sense, Mr Harper,[/I] he thought to himself wryly.

"Hey Trance, whatcha doing?" he asked her.

"It's a surprise," she told him with a grin.

He set back to work. He'd just got to the delicate part of the lens realignment when he heard two awful words from behind him.

"Uh oh."

At that very moment, a warning buzzer came over the Maru's systems and suddenly Harper, Trance, and all the various parts belonging to the slipstream drive were floating across the room.

"Trance!" Harper yelled. He fought to turn and faced the purple girl, who looked embarrassed and slightly amused.

"I'm sorry… I just, um, pushed the wrong button?"

Harper ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation, not an easy feat since the Gravity was out. "What were you trying to do?"

"Fix the coffee machine."

For awhile Harper stood – well, floated – in shock. She'd done that for him?

"Uh, thanks Trance," he said awkwardly. A loud voice came over the intercom.

"What the HELL have you done to my ship??" yelled Beka Valentine from the other room.

***

Harper spent the next ten minutes trying to fix the AG field – and failing miserably. Every time he tried to do something it would float away. Trance watched on, looking guilty.

"Crap!" Harper yelled as his nanowelder floated out of his grasp. He reached to grab it – but Trance's tail got there first.

"Here you go," Trance cheerfully said, offering the tool back to it's owner.

"Thanks."

She peered over his shoulder.

"What would happen if you pressed this bit down?" she asked, reaching for a stray wire.

"Trance – don't!" Harper yelled as her purple fingers caught the wire – and they softly floated to the floor.

"That's better," Trance grinned, and headed off to her quarters.

Harper looked at the circuitry. There was no way the AG field could be fixed by one simple touch – but it was.

Impossible.

Kind of like his purple friend…